A dark and stormy day

It's not easy being a golf blogger right now; the skies are grey and the courses are boggy or closed, and try as I might I can't get excited by who said what in the Monty/Nick saga. There may be events taking place in glorious sun on the other side of the world, but frankly, am I bovvered?

But here's a story to gladden any winter golfer's heart.

Last week , four doughty Golf Monthly Forum members took on four GM staff in what turned out to be an epic encounter on a windswept (and apparently deserted) Jubilee Course at St. Andrews. Now that's what I call golf!

Reports suggest it was a great match generously sprinkled with birdies, and the result was a fair but memorable draw. Since the staff team had some inmpressively low handicaps, I think that's a moral victory to the forum lads, who may have been a bit more acclimatised to East Coast conditions, but could you play like this in front of an official photographer?

Please note these pictures belong to Golf Monthly and should not be reproduced, transmitted etc etc ... you know the score (i.e. hands off, you blagging bloggers!)

The full match report will be in April's Golf Monthly (next but one issue, which just happens to be the one where a certain blogger is also appearing in print!) and I'm ordering my copy now, but meanwhile a big thank you to Mike Harris the editor for letting me give you a sneak preview here.

Well done, boys, and roll on the next event on the GM challenge tour!